On the first day, we were introduced to the doctors and assistants as well as familiarize ourselves with the clinic environment and facilities. The clinic itself has 3 fulltime doctors, 2 assistants, 2 pharmacists and a receptionist working on a rotation basis. Everyone was friendly and welcoming. The director of the clinic, Dr. Chan requested us to learn about three things during this two-week internship, which are the breed of every animal that comes into the clinic, the body languages of the animals and how to handle and restrain the animals.
Taking a quick photo with HuaHua, a poodle diagnosed with kennel cough
On a daily basis, we were to follow the doctors into the consultation room whenever there was a customer. Mostly, customers make appointments before arriving but there are some who walk-in without appointments. When the doctor was consulting, we usually just stood aside and observed as we were not allowed to talk or give our own opinion to the customers. Sometimes, we get to help hold the animals to make it easier for doctors to consult. We learned how the doctors diagnosed the patients, how they explained to the owners so that the owners will have a more clearer picture about the sickness as well as what kind of medicine they gave to treat the animal. Most of the patients were poodles, pomeranians and domestic shorthair cats. Some common cases were flu, diarrhea, vomit, skin allergy, fungus, bone fractures and vaccinations. We learned about the differences between vaccines and other medications. Corneal ulcer, feline infectious peritonitis, urinary tract infection, chylothorax, feline leukemia virus, kennel cough and bronchitis are some of the memorable cases.
This stray cat was hit by a car, it was one of the worst cases we檝e seen during our 2 week internship.
We got the chance to observe surgeries, such as this spay surgery of a cat
Other than that, we also helped doctors to treat the hospitalized animals. We learnt to prepare and feed medicines in both pills and liquid form such as kaolin pectin and metronidazole, we also helped with wound cleanings, nails cutting and ear cleanings. We got the chance to observe castration and spay surgeries for both cats and dogs. Before surgery, we were expected to help out in preparation works such as preparing anesthesia, clamoxyl (antibiotic) and meloxicam/onsior (painkiller) injection, chlorhexidine/iodine (antiseptic) to clean the animal’s skin and tying them up after anesthesia. During the last few days of our internship, we even get to do intramuscular and subcutaneous injections towards the animal. There were also teeth scaling surgery and microchip injections. The doctors were more than willing to teach and share their knowledge. Their explanations were thorough to ensure that we fully understand and emphasize certain items we should pay attention to when performing surgery.
A group photo with all the clinic workers before ending our internship.
The clinic itself has 2 consultation rooms, a surgery room, a pharmacy, X-ray room, cat and dog kennels and isolation rooms. The clinic provides X-ray, ultrasound and laser services so we were allowed to use the machines together with someone in charge. By the end of the day, we would like to say that although it isn’t a very big clinic, it does have everything it needs to operate and we learnt a lot during the internship. We were thankful to the doctors and hope we can intern there again next semester break.
Penulis :Chan Qiao Wen
